Why has having flexible working environments become so popular?

This quote has a deep meaning about job satisfaction which is one of the biggest positives of flexibility of working locations, the reason this creates job satisfaction is because it alleviates the stresses that come with getting to and from an office because for most people there is really no need to be in an office 5 days a week as cloud technology has grown to allow them to complete the same tasks that used to be office based from home. An example of this is Microsoft office where you can just log into an account and access all the files needed wherever you are.

Cloud-based technology improvement is even more important in the industry that we, CFM, are in. For example, at CFM we provide CCTV and our systems are always cloud-based meaning that the footage can be accessed from anywhere in the world, be it at home on a laptop or while out and about on a smartphone! This means our customers can have their premises secure even when they can’t be there. This allows them to, therefore, be flexible in their place of work.

However, some would argue that there are drawbacks. They would contend that working outside of the office could restrict motivation, because there’s no management nearby to put pressure on employees to do work, productivity, because there are more distractions at home than in the office, and communication, because employees are not within reaching distance of each other and therefore must rely on phones and emails for contact. However, according to a study by Microsoft of 1000 people from the UK who requested flexible working environments and work at small businesses, more than 80% said it had a positive impact on their work life. This is likely to do with the cloud technology improvements that have come in the past few years that make working in offices no longer essential to businesses to be successful.

In my opinion, working from anywhere is a huge positive to have for employees however it has to be done in the right way and have the benefits maximized for it to be successful, we at CFM often work from elsewhere when we see fit, however, we’d love to hear your opinions on our social media pages, @cfmhub on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram!